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Tikkun Leil Shavuot 🔀

May 25, 2023 @ 6:00 pmMay 26, 2023 @ 8:00 am

Join us for our community's all-night learning in celebration of the giving of Torah. We'll offer multiple in-person and virtual learning tracks and special learning for children, families, teens, and adults.

This event is free and open to the community!

Time

Session

Slot 1

(Ellman Chapel)

This is the Zoom link for all sessions held in Ellman Chapel

Slot 2

(Koplin-Borochoff Library)

This is the Zoom link for all sessions held in Koplin-Borochoff Library

Thursday, May 25

6:00 p.m.

Evening Minyan

Ellman Chapel

8:15 p.m.

Candle Lighting and Welcome

Ellman Chapel

8:50 p.m.

Session 1


Leader: Dr. Peter Saulson

We are "Citizens of Two Realms”
Through careful reading of Chapter One of his classic Man is Not Alone, we’ll see how Abraham Joshua Heschel argued that “the realm of the ineffable” was at least as real as the physical world. This insight forms the basis for understanding Heschel’s argument for the realness of God.

Source Sheet

Leader: Richard Friedman

Everything We Knew Was Wrong
Just a couple of examples to show how two revolutions—Archaeology and Bible Criticism—have changed what we know and what we understand in most of the Bible.

Source Sheet

9:50 p.m.

Transition

10:00 p.m.

Session 2

Leader: Dennis Gilbride

How Abraham Joshua Heschel Understands the Purpose of Prayer

This session will discuss Heschel’s view of prayer. We will explore several components of prayer including gratitude, wonder and moving beyond self-centeredness. We will also discuss Heschel’s view on the differences between prayers of praise and petition.

Source Sheet


Leader: Rabbi Neil Sandler

Reading Torah—Challenging the Mind and Uplifting the Spirit: A Session in Memory of Arnold M. Goodman z"l
Rabbi Arnold Goodman, my teacher and our teacher, enjoyed a very fulfilling career in the rabbinate. He touched many lives through the Torah he taught and left with many people. Of course, Rabbi Goodman’s Torah began with study of THE Torah. In this session on the day we celebrate our people’s receiving Torah, we will look at the meaning of the public reading of the Torah, the purpose it serves and the spirituality of the practice in our services.

Source Sheet

10:50 p.m.

Transition

11:00 p.m.

Session 3

Leader: Edward Queen

Torah and Tikkun: Study and Observance as a Spark for Redemption

Most of us know the Hebrew word "tikkun" from the phrase "tikkun olam" (repair the world) and may wonder what does it have to do with Shavuot? Traditionally the word, meaning repair or rectification, described activities undertaken to "fix" some sin or transgression, either individual or collective. They served to repair the world on a cosmic scale and pave the way for the messiah. This session looks at the kabbalistic doctrine of "theurgy", the idea that human actions affect the divine realm, and the essential role that Torah study and observance play in sparking redemption.

Source Sheet

Leader: Dr. Linda Lippitt

Chasidic Psychology and Demons
This is the teaching of Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh. Close reading of the Torah and the Zohar reveals what G-d left unfinished and why.We will discuss the strategies available to suppress scars of trauma or desires for things that take us further from G-d. The most critical name for G'd for this purpose is "Sha-'ai. We will start the session with an orientation to the kabbalistic tree of life. Hopefully this will allow novices to mysticism to be enriched by this and want more.

Source Sheet

Friday, May 26

12:00 a.m.

Session 4

Leader: Steve Chervin

Abraham Joshua Heschel and Prophecy: God and Justice

Just as the prophets in the Hebrew Bible were consumed by God's demand for justice in the world, so too was AJ Heschel consumed with his own appreciation of the divine imperative to seek justice. In this session, we will examine excerpts from Heschel's masterpiece The Prophets, based on his doctoral dissertation in philosophy completed for the University of Berlin.

Source Sheet

Leader: Rabbi Chaim Listfield

“Is God a Gator?”
A story making the rounds is that one of America’s most famous rabbis blessed the University of Florida Men’s basketball team two years in a row, and the Gators won the national championship both times. We’ll discuss this charming story—and then we’ll debunk it. Shavuot is about following God, not influencing God.

Source Sheet

12:50 a.m.

Transition

1:00 a.m.

Session 5

Leader: Joe Citron

Torah in Relationship to Music, Songs and Artists

We will look at the influence of the Torah in song. Also see the diverse applicants of Torah in their works.

Source Sheet

Leader: Jordan Forman

Got to Get a Get? Got It!
Jordan will touch on some highlights from the tractate of Gittin (and maybe other sources) to see what Judaism has to say about divorce and the process of the get. What are the rights and responsibilities of the parties to the divorce? What can be done when someone is not performing his/her obligations? We will discuss these and other related issues.

Source Sheet

1:50 a.m.

Transition

2:00 a.m.

Session 6

Leader: Jay Waronker

Synagogues of Sub-Saharan Africa: Architecture, History and Communities
A book talk on Jay Waronker's just-released book Synagogues of Sub-Saharan Africa: Architecture, History and Communities. This publication provides a written and richly-illustrated (including Waronker's careful watercolors) history of the three hundred or so synagogues realized by diverse communities of Jews in thirteen regional countries: South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Eritrea. These religious buildings, varying in scale and appointments from the grand and luxurious to the one-roomed and humble and constructed in large cities, towns and villages, date from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Some are still operational, others repurposed and yet more demolished. Filling in a previous gap in scholarship and general knowledge, these synagogues reveal a fascinating story of Jewish, African and architectural history and identity.

Source Sheet


Leader: Rabbi Hillel Norry

The Most Remarkable Object in History—The Tablets
Not all characters in the biblical stories are people. Sometimes it is a remarkable THING, an object that plays a crucial part in driving the narrative forward, and creating the story. We will look at the description of the tablets themselves (not the commandments… the TABLETS… and ask simple but revealing questions about this remarkable object: Where is it, and where did it come from? Who made it? What is it made of? Is it the only one of its kind? When does it appear in our story? What happened to it, and where is it now?

Source Sheet

2:50 a.m.

Transition

3:00 a.m.

Session 7

Leader: Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal

Homosexuality and the Torah—A Jewish Perspective

For millennia, the words of the Bible have been used to exclude, ridicule, and demean homosexuals. The few words in the Torah on this issue are often read and taken at "face value." Is this "face value" reading really what the Torah says or are generations of bias, fear, and social control being read into our understanding of God’s will? A deeper reading can reveal a lot about how the Bible might be understanding sexuality and sexual behavior.

Source Sheet

There is no second slot session, only a first slot session in Ellman Chapel.

3:50 a.m.

Transition

4:00 a.m.

Session 8

Leader: Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal

Israel Through the Eyes of a Poet

Explore the artistic expression of love, life, and hope as poets give us deeper meaning into the Promised Land. This session will look at how Israel was expressed through the minds of poets and what their heartfelt expression means to our modern understanding and love of the Jewish State.

Source Sheet

There is no second slot session, only a first slot session in Ellman Chapel.

5:00 a.m.

Transition

5:15 a.m.

Gentle Yoga and Stretching

Memorial Garden

5:45 a.m.

Hashkamah Minyan (Early Morning Service)

Memorial Garden

8:00 a.m.

Breakfast

Paradies Hall

Details